Beef and Broccoli

I was looking for a beef and broccoli with a nice sauce. Most tend to be either over salty or kind of gummy due to too much soy sauce and starch.  I found a nice sauce base start here and then worked it to what I needed/wanted.

Beef and Broccoli

• ginger, grated - about 2 tablespoons
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed/minced
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• brown sugar - about 2 tablespoons
• ground beef - 1 pound
• broccoli, chopped - about 1 - 1 1/2 cups
• sesame seeds - 1 tablespoon, toasted
• 1 - 2 tablespoons oil/butter
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1/2 cup green onion, sliced finely
• 1/4 cup thai basil (optional), chiffonade

1. In a pot, mix ginger, garlic, soy sauce, hot water and sugar.  put it on a back burner on med heat, simmering. 
2. In a large sauce pan, toast the sesame seeds.  Once toasted, place to the side.
3. In the same sauce pan that the sesame seeds were toasted, place the cooking oil/butter to heat.  Once hot, add diced onion to season the oil/butter.  Once the onion is browned, take a slotted spoon and leaving the oil in the pan, place the cooked onion into the sauce. 
4. After all the onion has been moved to the sauce pan.  Add the ground beef to the sauce pan and brown.  
5. Add the broccoli to the sauce pan, cook.
6. While broccoli is cooking, puree the sauce.  Once the broccoli is cooked through, add the pureed sauce.  Mix well.  Add the green onion and thai basil.  

Serve - on rice, noodles or right out of the bowl.  Can add cashews or peanuts as garnish as well for a crunch. 

Kofta, Albondigas, K''ttublle…a meatball with any other name is still just as yummy!

I am completely fascinated by meatballs.  When I was a kid, I didn't realize that there were other ethnic cultures with meatballs.  Oddly, I thought only Indian's and Italian's had meatballs, a "I" thing.  Unlike the rest of America,  who apparently only knew of Italian style meatballs - at least among my non-Indian friends. 

Meatballs have a fascinating history for all that no-one can definitively state where they originated.  A few cultural/food historians believe that it originated in Persia, since so many variations of the name for meatballs derives from the Persian word koofteh which means 'pounded meat'. 

But, one of the first recorded recipes is from a Roman written in 25 AD - which rated the best meatballs to be made of peacock, then pheasant, rabbit, chicken and then pork (Taste of Ancient Rome by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa).   I guess beef was not big in 25 AD? 

And trust the Spanish Inquisition to come up with a creative way to use meatballs to identify who needs to be arrested because they aren't Christian.  Just think, you are invited over for dinner and your host is putting out these lovely little meatballs called albondigas.  So, to identify those Jews who were secretly trying to pass for Christian converts - a host would put pork in their albondigas and after the guests were seated, let the guests know that the meatballs were non-kosher.  If any guest refused to eat it or spit it out, they were immediately arrested. 

I just always thought they were a quick and easy meal.  Never really thinking about how they came about - or all the history of it.  (there is more out there!)

You can make so many variations. Whatever you have a taste for, there is a meatball (or you can create one).

Speaking of creating, we have a lot of pickles from my canning project last fall.  And, I was in the mood for Greek.  And, lucky us, we have cucumber lemon pickles, yogurt and dill.

It turned out so good, so I will share both the cucumber lemon pickle and the meatballs.
 

Greek style meatballs with yogurt dill sauce

1 pound ground beef
3-5 slices of pickled cucumbers in lemon, diced
1/2 lemon slice from pickle, diced
1 tablespoon oregano (or to taste)
1 tablespoon parsley (or to taste)
1/4 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 cup yogurt
2 tablespoon dill
salt
pepper


Meatballs:
take the ground beef, 1/2 the diced pickle.  Add all the onion,oregano, parsley and garlic. salt and pepper to taste. mix well and form into balls (loosely).  You can add a egg if you wish for binding, but I never find I need it.  Put into a skillet to cook.

Yogurt sauce:
take yogurt, rest of pickle and lemon, dill.  A bit of salt and pepper. mix and set aside until meatballs are done.

Serve with yogurt sauce as a side.

Now the Pickles themselves take a bit of planning, it takes about a minimum of 1 week to cure and get the flavors into the cucumbers.  They are a lovely tart, sweet, lemony flavor.

Cucumber Pickles with lemon

2 pounds small cucumbers
1 tablespoon pickling salt
1 1/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
3 slices fresh lemon
3 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
3 pint jars

1. cut the ends of the cucumbers and discard.  Cut cucumber into thick slices.  Place into non-reactive container, sprinkle with salt and let stand for 3 hours. Drain.  Rinse twice and drain thoroughly.

2. combine vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, peppercorns and allspice in a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.

3. add cucumbers to boiling liquid (from step 2). return to a boil, stirring constantly.  remove from heat.

4. remove hot jars from canner.  Place 1 slice lemon, 1 garlic clove and a bay leaf in each pint jar. 

5. remove cucumbers from liquid with a slotted spoon and pack into jars.  Pour hot liquid over the cucumbers to within 1/2 inch of rim (headspace).  Process for 10 min. 

Store in your pantry for future use. In things such as Greek style yogurt and meatballs. Or with your burgers.

Kale...Kale and even more K.A.L.E.

We joined a vegetable CSA for the summer months and it's been wonderful.  I figured that since I use to be a vegetarian, it'll be easy, right?

ummm.. yeah, ok, not really.  For one thing, kale.  I know it's nutritious and wonderful and good for you and all that jazz.  But, there is a bitterness to it that makes it challenging to eat every day. And, honestly, our CSA share (an individual share no less) has more than enough for us to eat kale every single day!

The good things about kale:

• Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium.
• stores for a pretty long time (might be a bad thing in our case *grin*)
• apparently a lot of cultures use kale in dishes - so I have a variety of choices

Bad thing?  I now need to know how to cook kale -- aside from the kale chips I made all the time when I was being "good".  :)  And, the BF isn't a big fan of kale's taste - so I needed to find ways to minimize the bitterness.

So, the quest began... and I found some great kale dishes.  The recipe below was made up based on some of the recipes I found.  Mostly because it's been way too hot to bake!  It's an "italian" take.  It is also a way to use up a lot of the veggies I was getting from the CSA. So, you can add or subtract any veggies you like - toss in Italian sausage for the ground beef (or with the ground beef)  but the cheese and the pasta sauce is a must. Otherwise, you really are creating your own dish (no worries on that... but then I can't take credit, can I? *grin*)

Italian style beef with veggies 

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, diced 
• kale - minced
• zucchini (optional)
• yellow squash (optional)
• garlic (to taste), minced/crushed
• tomato sauce/pasta sauce 
• mozzarella cheese (to taste)
• dried basil
• dried oregeno
• dried rosemary
• salt
• pepper
• butter/ghee for browning onions and meat

In a frying pan, melt butter and add onions.  Once onions have started turning brown, add garlic.  If you like kale - you can put it in later - but if you are trying to "hide" it - put it in now as it will cook down to almost nothing.

Add ground beef once the kale has wilted away - as you want to brown the beef and so you need the water content of the kale to dissipate.

Once ground beef has browned, add the spices (basil, rosemary, oregano).  Stir it in.  Add the veggies (if you are adding any additional - and really it is any veggie that you would find in a Italian dish. Eggplant/aubergine is another great choice. )  and cook it a bit so it isn't so raw.  This is also based on how much your family likes veggies.  I tend to shred the veggies in a food processor so that there is a uniformity of taste and to cook it a bit longer.  (zucchini and aubergines aren't favored by the BF either.  *grin*  I'm always surprised he was a vegan... honestly, what would one eat if you don't like most veg?)  


Add pasta sauce and simmer for a bit. Just so the flavors meld.  Add cheese.  Serve.

Some pasta sauce brands we like - when I'm too lazy to make my own:

Coupla Guys :
 - Awesome Arrabiata, Marvelous Marinara, Perfect Puttanesca (you must like olives!)

Tomato Mountain Farm's Tomato Basil Pasta sauce ( they also have great salsa's and jams)

Lucini Italia  Spicy Tuscan Tomato Sauce

Dave's Gourmet Organic Spicy Heirloom Marinara Pasta Sauce (isn't that a mouthful? *grin*)

Picadillo - Cuban (ish) style

I think I've shared that we are in a Meat CSA.  Have I said that I am now the CSA coordinator for said CSA? Yes! I am the first ever Meadow Haven CSA coordinator.  whoohoo!  Of course the CSA only started out about six months ago, so it's not like there was a lot of coordinating going on.

Anyway, in our meat share we get a lot of ground beef.  No complaints, I love ground beef because it is so versatile and there are so many ways to cook it.  And, you can get a flavor of a country just by adding spices or other ingredients to create a whole new dish.  We've had South African, Italian, Spanish, Indian and so on. Aside from the not so basic burgers that the BF makes for us, as he makes great burgers.

Picadillo is a fairly common name for a Latin American and Filipino dish made up with (usually) ground beef .  The dish comes with a variety of flavors based on the country of origin.  I even found one in a Tex-Mex cookbook but it looked so boring compared with this version that I didn't even write it down or try it.  But, once you have a great recipe it is very hard to muck around with a blander version.   The dish is usually served with rice or as the filling in a taco - but we just eat it straight from a bowl. Best of all, if you double the quantity, it reheats great for work.

Another good thing is that you can add almost anything to it to meet your tastes.  The idea is a sweet, salty, beefy combo.  The BF likes cashews and we added that for a bonus crunch.  The original recipe is from Three Guys From Miami who also have a cookbook that has some great recipes.

Picadillo

1 cup diced onion
1 cup seeded and finely chopped bell pepper
butter/fat for sautéing
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lbs. ground beef or ground round
1 1/2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (or one can of chopped tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/16 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 cup chopped olives  (optional - green or black)
1/6 cup raisins
Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cup raw cashews (optional)

Melt butter/fat in a large frying pan. Sauté onion and green pepper for about 5 minutes, until the onion is softened. Add the garlic and ground beef. Cook until the meat is browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, and oregano. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.  If you don't want any sauce, cook it uncovered.  You may still have to simmer it longer to reduce the liquids if you used canned tomatoes.

Add olives and raisins and simmer 5 minutes longer. Salt and pepper to taste.

While the olives and raisins are cooking.  Heat up a frying pan with butter, toss in the cashews and stirring constantly wait until lightly brown.  Then toss them into the pan.

Asian inspired ground beef

I've been on a hunt for ground beef recipes because our CSA provides a lot of ground beef and one can eat chili and burgers so many times.

It's probably just me. :)  I really have trouble eating the same dish multiple times and if I've made it once, unless it's requested again I probably will forget about the dish. I know, it is very odd.  But, I like to make new things and try new flavors - hence the blog.  So, that I can recall a really good dish and do it up again.  And, you thought I was writing for you. uh?

Ok. I was writing for anyone who is willing to put up with my random moments of writing. And for the people I love who really don't need to hear about me going on and on and on about food. ;)

The thing I love about this dish is that you can add any veggie you want to it and I had some cabbage and spinach.  So, I tossed it in.  The original recipe is from This Primal Life which I haven't tried anything but this recipe.  It looks cool and I'm hoping to wander around her site some more.

Asian Ground Beef

1 lb. ground beef
3 tablespoons butter/ghee
1 bell pepper, sliced - red/yellow/orange - something to make it pretty
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup cabbage, shredded (optional)
1/2 cup spinach, chopped (optional) 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Sauce:
3 tablespoons almond butter or peanut butter
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

Mix the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.

In a warm skillet, melt some butter/ghee.  Add onions and cook until softened.  Add garlic and ginger, cook about a minute or so.  Add ground beef and cook until browned.

Once the beef has browned, add veggies (carrots, spinach, peppers, etc).   Once the veggies are cooked to your taste, I like it a bit on the al dente side so there is a crunch.  Add the sauce. Give a quick stir.  Turn off the stove, add the cilantro.  Serve.

Yum!

Notes on the recipe:

•  I cook my onion as I don't like the sharp bite of onion. You do not have to do so. And, in the original recipe it is not cooked early. 
•  If using cabbage, you can put it in with the ground beef depending on how much you like cabbage. The earlier you put it in, the less the cabbage flavor will show through in the dish. Since the BF isn't a big fan of cabbage, I chopped it up into tiny bits and cooked it earlier in the process.
• While I say use "pretty" peppers, this really isn't that attractive of a dish. Yummy! but not pretty. But, I figure taste wins! And, as long as I don't do this up for company... we're all good, right? 
• Now, you can put these in lettuce leaves and serve. I'd suggest Boston or even the dreaded Iceburg which both have nice big leaves. But, we just ate it up right from the bowl.